Housewives University: Teresa Guidice 101

Published May 5, 2023, 4:36 AM

Today’s Housewives University case study is Teresa Giudice. Bethenny dissects Teresa and her brand. Find out what works, what didn’t and why. 

Plus, did Teresa rip something from one of Bethenny’s businesses? There’s a lot to be learned here and luckily for you the losses won’t be your own!

Housewives University, it occurred to me that so many housewives have now entered into business, and I've actually met housewives that have said they started businesses because of me and because of what I did on Housewives and Skinny Girl and all that stuff, and using as a platform. So I want to go housewife by housewife and talk about their businesses and grade them the mistakes and the successes, and really honestly talk about these business vehicles because often on Housewives, housewives understandably feel like they have to grab a business idea because they have to maximize this opportunity, and there are so many different things that you could do, and you know, it all seems shiny and smart, meaning some people walk in with their own business that may not be as sexy and TV friendly. Let's say, let's say Vicky your insurance, but that's the bread and butter like. It's not an easy product to market that someone can go online and buy, but that's her core business. And then you have Chara who was marketing She by Chara because it sounds good and it's shiny, but there was no meat, there was no substance. So today we're going to do Teresa Giudija. She wisely piggybacked on my Skinny Girl brand by launching Skinny Italian.

She launched a cookbook.

It's smart because she's you know, later became about fitness, but the Bravo audience cares about calories and being fit and being in shape, and there are many Italian cookbooks, so her coming up with a version of a lower calorie Italian cookbook is just very smart.

It solves a problem.

It is kind of diet adjacent, which is a successful category used to be back back then. Now diet is not in it all, and Skinny's not in it all, even as a concept, not meaning as a body type. But she did Skinny Italian Fabulousous, which probably did well, but I bet you Skinny Italian did better. And it sounded like, you know, she had the platform, she had the vehicle, she'd go out, and she's a worker, so she could really promote something like that and get her audience to buy into it just to support her. It's not like she's selling something it's two hundred dollars. It just seemed to hit right, and it hit right when housewives books were doing We're doing well. My book was the first ever Housewives book, and then there were others to follow, and a lot of them did well in the beginning because that was when we were getting all the press and getting the talk shows, and it was back then when it was a more traditional sense of media. You didn't talk about a book until you sat down on the Today Show, and then it would hopefully.

Hit the list if it was a decent book.

There are many Housewives books failures because what happens, like in the liquor business, someone does it well. I've had five New York Times bestsellers, and my first several books were New York Times bestsellers. So a lot of other housewives jumped on that bandwagon. I was the first. Needy was soon thereafter. Theresa was a little while after. But you kind of got to jump right on. Brandy Glanville, I remember her book did well, but you got to jump right on otherwise you're just another liquor brand, you're another book. So you know, it's hard to know when you're almost too late, like celebrity beauty brands.

Right now, it's too late. We did it, like the.

Last one in was Selena Gomez, you know, and some people are getting caught, they're not making it through, you know, j Lo skincare, it's not pushing through certain brands, Scarlett Johansson, it's not pushing through Pharrell and Brad Pitt and that stuff just was never a good idea men's skincare. No one's really done it properly yet it's not pushing through, So you gotta know.

And you could be too early. By the way, you could be too early.

You know, Quibi was a shit show by Jeffrey Katzenberg, but it was short form content like short videos, and it was probably not executed the way the TikTok was. But things can be too early. I created the wave of liquor brands for celebrities, the big wave I created, but I was early. If I had sold my brand Skinny Girl, based on the cases it was doing back then, I would have gotten a billion dollars half a billion dollars. But I was early, so people weren't paying that then, So it's like you gotta time. It's so Skinny Italian was towards the front of that, and then a lot of people got caught just writing books.

For vanity reasons.

You know, she and she was late for the liquor Fabillini and she was too niche for the liquor, and Kathy Wikiola had a red velvet liquor. Luanne talked about a vodka, Nini talked about a prosecco. Everybody got caught in the dumpster fire that was you know. Heather talked about it like a Champagne, Like could you could have saved a lot of money, Ramona with the Pino Grigio with her own name, like I could have told I did. They all were just bad ideas and just a disaster. So Chuisa gets an a on Skinny Italian. She gets a sea on Fabilini because her name is cutesy back when cutty drinks were doing well. Billini is just not marketable, so she gets to see says her wine came to a halt when she was sentenced to prison. It came to a halt because it was it started at a halt.

That was just a sea Blania haircare.

I presume that's named after her daughter, unless there's a coincidence and a brand name Milania came to her. And it says that investors began to get nervous, took steps to withdraw and distance themselves. Doesn't matter doesn't matter.

Would that have done well?

Is that what she represents? She has big good hair and hair extensions. I presume this is hair extensions or this was hair care products. Here's the thing about hair care. Why Teresa gets to see on the hair care. She doesn't get an f because it's a good idea because she's got thick Italian hair and like you know with her wedding, it's like hair. She's very hair forward, right, you know, there's always elaborate hair and like a lot of hair and she's very hair forward.

But hair care is.

Something you need to really trust, like skincare, Like you can't do housewives skincare. It's just not enough. It's not trusted enough. Like it's like appliances. That's why Sony didn't do well with her toaster, Like appliances is something you need to trust like over time, like decades, like Floreal Revlon, like that your hair is not gonna fall out and that it's trusted and it's something that's in your house every day. It's like Procter and Gamble household items. So from her to come in with hair, like yeah, if there was a cute serum or a cute product, but like for full fledged hair care, if there was a hair growth serum that seemed like a gimmick that she could possibly push, yes, but for like all your hair care needs, it's just not something that every day you're gonna have in your bathroom and have guests over and like you're pushing Malani and hair care.

It's just it's not there. It's not her fault.

It's just that you got to be a trusted brand that really is scientific and just that households and moms and supermarkets and it's just it's just a different level of trust for certain categories like T shirts is not the same level trust as skin care and hair care. And then toasters, it's an electrical appliance in your home, Like that's something you need to really really be able to trust.

Okay, toaster vibrate it.

Yes, it needs to be reliable, but it's not gonna be like around your kids with any luck and in your house every day. So Malania Haircare was a sea because it's a good idea. She's very hair forward, and this audience cares about their hair. They'll buy a serum, but they'll be onto the next thing next. It's not something that they're gonna forever be like loyalists to Milania haircare. Pasta pizza restaurant. I don't even know about this, but it's a terrible idea. Who's the business person behind this restaurant, this pasta pizza restaurant. Who's the business like, yes, pizza, you know pizza, you know people, your family, who's running the numbers? Like who is doing the business. It doesn't sound like there's anybody who really understands a restaurant business who's involved in that business. They launched it at a time where everything was moving towards direct to consumer, like do a frozen pizza business. I know she reached out to me about some pizza oven. It's a better idea because because THEESA would go on on QVC or HSCENT, and she's a worker, so she'll fucking slept there and sell pizzas at two o'clock in the morning and not care and people will buy them pizza sauces. It's very crowded. I wouldn't suggest it, but pizza sauce is better than a pizza restaurant. Frozen pizza's skinny Italian. She can't own the word skinny. Maybe I don't know skinny Italian Pizza's better idea restaurant clunky, bulky, overhead taxes, upkeep ratings, not direct to consumer. They're just get to the customer, Get the pizza to the customer, get the sauce to the customer, pizza kits.

That sounds blogged down.

Yeah, I don't think she needed to like, I'm giving that a sea too. So overall, Teresa for her business endeavors, gets a C plus

Just B Dating with Bethenny Frankel

Just B Dating is Bethenny's lifetime of advice for how to handle the crazy world of dating. Get wit 
Social links
Follow podcast
Recent clips
Browse 95 clip(s)